1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a trap shooting machine. More specifically, this invention relates to such a machine adapted to load itself and hurl clay pigeons successively in random directions.
2. Description of Related Art including Information Disclosed under .sctn..sctn.1.97 to 1.99
In trap shooting, at one time the targets were thrown out by a spring-loaded machine tended to by a boy located in a protected pit in front of the marksman. The boy would load and cock the machine and trigger it on call. Such help is no longer readily available. It has become usual, therefore, for targets to be launched by an electrically operated clay pigeon flinger. Such a flinger may be loaded with the clay pigeon by the marksman who, when he is ready, closes a switch to initiate the cycle of the automatic flinger. Such flingers are commercially available on the market, one under the trademark "QUIKFIRE".
It has been common in skeet shooting to have two such machines aimed in different directions so that they can be fired off simultaneously and an agile and quick marksman can pick off the clay pigeons successively, one high on the right and one low on the left, for instance. However, even this routine becomes somewhat old in that the patterns of projectiles from a given machine are more or less uniform with the same settings and after a while the projectiles hurled in such an arrangement offer no surprises.
As a further development, one U.S. patent discloses a thrower adapted to launch two clay pigeons on the same fling, one further advanced on the flinger plate than the other so that the two pigeons are projected off at different angles. This is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,641 to Cote. Here again, the pigeons are thrown in the predictable directions so that the marksman again eventually has no surprises.
There has been a need for an automatic trap shooting machine which will throw successive targets in random directions. The demand for such an arrangement is primarily from the more expert marksman seeking further challenge.